Have they gone MADD?

What was once a maternal grassroots movement to warn of the perils and tragedies associated with drinking and driving, Mothers Against Drunk Driving has sadly devolved into the WCTU.

It must be losing its grip.

The stridently puritanical Woman's Christian Temperance Union, which brought its tea pot to Canada in 1874, believed even a sniff of demon alcohol caused unemployment, disease, prostitution, poverty and immorality.

And it wanted this "evil" not just restricted but abolished.

Is this MADD's next mission?

The anti-drunk-driving crusaders, not satisfied with the successful RIDE campaigns they helped launch, are now demanding legislation that would allow police to stop anyone on the pretext of conducting random roadside breath tests (RBT) -- anywhere and anytime.

That's right, without cause, as in a police state -- claiming their Ipsos Reid polling has 77% of Canadians support RBTs.

We find this impossible to believe.

The CEO of MADD Canada is Andrew Murie, the same exec who defended a Toronto-area police force last year that, to us, was sending a mixed pre-Christmas message by handing public-intoxication tickets to bar goers waiting on the sidewalk for their prearranged designated driver service.

Instead of congratulating the bar goers for not drinking and driving, and being responsible, however, Murie congratulated the police for busting them, and then laid blame on the bars for over-serving.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving is supposed to be against drunk driving, not the act of having a drink or even having one too many drinks.

But it now appears to be against drinking altogether -- and this could put its charitable Project Red Ribbon campaign in peril.

The public can only take so much lecturing, hectoring and infringement of its civil liberties.

And we, for one, have had our fill.

MADD had best go back to its maternal grassroots before the public cashes them out as over-bearing, self-important zealots.

We loathe drinking and driving, and we say this without reservation. We are in the news biz, after all, and we daily see far too many tragedies across this country not to agree with MADD's original cause.